Method and device for detecting locations of bus subscribers

ABSTRACT

In order to register the order of bus subscribers ( 12 ) when starting a system without the use of a token line to be specifically laid for his purpose along the two-wire bus ( 11 ), the bus master ( 13 ) temporarily activates a reflective discontinuity, preferably a bus short circuit, in a respective selectively addressed one of the subscribers ( 12 ) after stochastically determining all subscriber addresses (Ki). The echo signal ( 19 ) of a voltage jump ( 18 ), which is then output onto the bus ( 11 ) by the master ( 13 ), is superimposed in the master ( 13 ) to form a square-wave-like differential signal ( 20 ) whose pulse duration which is proportional to the distance between the master ( 13 ) and that subscriber ( 12 ) along the bus ( 11 ) is measured following pulse shaping by analog pulse area integration ( 25 ).

I. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method and device for detecting bussubscribers and solving the problem of being able to address the bussubscribers of a parallel bus in a location-selective manner from amaster via the bus, for instance in order to give rise to specificeffects at particular locations.

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

For this purpose, when the system is started, the master must beinformed of the location at which an individually addressable bussubscriber (slave) is connected to the bus. In order to effect this, itis customary to serially loop a so-called token line through all bussubscribers, said token line having an interruption which can be bridgedin each bus subscriber. A token signal which is emitted by the masterwhen the system is started passes only to the first interruption pointand thus only to the first of the subscribers connected to the bus overthe course of the latter. The particular subscriber responds to thesignal with the acknowledgement of its identification address and thenbridges its interruption, with the result that the next token signalpasses to the next bus subscriber and so on until the ID addresses ofall bus subscribers have been registered by the master in their physicalorder along the bus. If the course of the bus is known, particularseats, for example in the passenger cabin of an aircraft, can beindividually supplied with light or air, or running light phenomenawhose colour and brightness differences can be specifically controlledover the longitudinal extent of the passenger cabin. However, such atoken procedure makes it possible to determine only the individualsequence of bus subscribers but not their distance from the master andthus their physical position along the bus. In view of the problem ofthe amount of space required for the cabling in aircraft, in particular,it is detrimental to have to lay a separate line parallel to the overallextent of the bus only for this initialization when starting the system,which line is then no longer required during operation. The use of thetoken line results in an additional weight which is not inconsiderable,and, in addition, the amount of space required for two additionalconnectors for entry and exit of the token line becomes noticeable ineach of the bus subscribers.

II. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

With knowledge of these facts, the present invention is based on thetechnical problem of being able to determine the spatial assignment(also referred to as “physical to logical mapping”) of the individualsubscribers on the parallel bus with less outlay on wiring andnevertheless in a more meaningful manner when the system is started.

This object is achieved, according to the essential features specifiedin the two main claims, with functional parallelization of the entirebus system. According to this, the outlay on wiring for an additionaltoken line and the additional weight of the latter as well as theadditional need for connectors on the bus subscribers are now completelydispensed with.

Instead, when starting the system, all bus subscribers register their IDaddresses with the master via the bus after random waiting times andthus in a random and variable order, said master documenting the currentregistration and reconfirming it via the bus, thus precluding furtherregistration attempts by this subscriber until the next system start. Inthe event of registration collisions involving bus subscribers, theregistration attempts by the latter are repeated, if necessary withchanged waiting times, until a registration no longer occurs because allof the subscribers have successfully registered.

After this, at the latest, the master addresses—in principle in anydesired order—each bus subscriber in succession using the latter's IDaddress via the bus and thus gives rise to a temporary discontinuity inthe subscriber for the purpose of influencing the reflection property ofthe two-wire bus line; a procedure which can also be repeated duringshort interruptions in bus operation, for instance in order to detectthe position of recently connected subscribers.

That discontinuity may involve opening the bus lines; however, forreasons of system reliability, the bus is expediently not interruptedbut rather is subjected to severe additional loading, that is to sayattenuated, at the location of the addressed subscriber, preferably eventemporarily resistively short-circuited. In the meantime, the masterthen feeds a signal into the bus, which signal is reflected at thisdiscontinuity in the subscriber. The delay from the transmitting time tothe reception of the signal echo is measured and represents a distancemeasure of the spatial position of the subscriber along the course(which is known by design) of the bus. The reflection influence is thencancelled again in this subscriber (that is to say the relay/normallyopen contact pairing, for instance, of a short-circuit switch is enabledto open again until the next system start) and the local position ofanother subscriber along the course of the bus is then determined in thesame manner until the location information for all bus subscribersdocumented in the master has been stored for the ID addresses of saidbus subscribers along the bus (that is to say no longer only thesequences thereof). It is now possible to initiate spatially selectivecontrol measures by selectively controlling subscribers along theparallel bus without requiring a separate token line.

However, the echo propagation times for determining the distance betweena subscriber and the master are very short. In order to neverthelessavoid having to expend the outlay on circuitry for a digital propagationtime measurement, one development of the invention provides for themaster to output a voltage jump onto the bus as a localization signal.This is because, as soon as an echo has been superimposed on said signalin the master, a differential signal is produced therein, the length ofwhich differential signal is directly proportional to the line length ofthe bus between the master and the currently addressed subscriber. Thislength is detected in an analogous manner, namely using the areaintegral of the signal which, given a known pulse amplitude, specifiesthe pulse duration and thus the distance.

III. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Additional developments and alternatives to the solution according tothe invention emerge from the other claims and, also as regards theiradvantages, from the following description of a sketched preferredexample of a circuit for implementing the invention. In the drawing:

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the bus equipment,

FIG. 2 shows echo position determination in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 shows the evaluation of the echo signal according to FIG. 2.

IV. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The two-wire bus 11 sketched in the form of a block diagram in FIG. 1 isconnected downstream of a master 13 which is common to all bus scribers12. Each subscriber 12 is personalized by its ID address 14 (Ki) and canbe individually addressed by the master 13 after registering with thelatter. Each subscriber 12 is provided with a load circuit 15,preferably with a short-circuit switch 16 as sketched, which is inactiveduring normal operation.

If the distance between one of the subscribers 12 and the master 13 isintended to be determined, namely, in particular, in connection with asystem start, the master 13 causes the load circuit 15 to be activatedin that subscriber 12, that is to say causes the short-circuit switch 16to be closed in the exemplary situation illustrated. As a result, themaster 13 no longer sees the reflection-free line termination 17 of thebus 11 because a signal passed onto the bus 11 by the master 13undergoes determined reflection at this discontinuity, especially in theevent of a short circuit.

For such position determination, the master 13 outputs (+v) a voltagejump 18 (FIG. 2) onto the bus 11, which voltage jump is reflected in thesubscriber 12 with the load circuit 15 which has just been activated.This echo signal 19 is the reverse (−v) of the emitted voltage jump and,in the master 13, meets the output voltage of the voltage jump 18 whichis still applied. This results in a differential signal 20 whose length21 is proportional to twice the bus line distance 22 between the master13 and the addressed subscriber 11, as plotted in FIG. 2 as “2×Delta_t”.

This differential signal 20 obtained from the echo superimposition isgreatly rounded in practice. According to FIG. 3, a potential shift toform an asymmetrical signal 23 and pulse shaping of the latter to formthe square-wave signal 24 with a predefined constant amplitude aretherefore expediently carried out, the time integral of said square-wavesignal being sampled, as illustrated in FIG. 3 by the integrator 25 witha downstream sampling circuit 26.

In order to register the order of bus subscribers 12 when starting asystem without the need for a token line to be specifically laid forthis purpose along the two-wire bus 11, the bus master 13 thustemporarily activates, according to the invention, a reflectivediscontinuity, preferably a bus short circuit, in a respectiveselectively addressed one of the subscribers 12 after stochasticallydetermining all subscriber addresses Ki. The echo signal 19 of a voltagejump 18, which is then output onto the bus 11 by the master 13, is thussuperimposed in the master 13 to form a square-wave-like differentialsignal 20 whose pulse duration which is directly proportional to thedistance between the master 13 and that subscriber 12 along the bus 11is measured using the integrator 25 following pulse shaping to form anidealized square-wave signal 24 by means of analogue pulse areaintegration. The outlay on circuitry required for this purpose isconstant irrespective of the number of subscribers 12 since it must beimplemented only once, namely in the master 13. This simultaneouslyaffords the advantage that circuitry tolerances have the same effect onall position measurements, which mitigates the demands imposed on theaccuracy of the measuring system. However, in the preferredimplementation, extra equipment for the individual subscribers 12 isessentially restricted to an additional relay with a pair of normallyopen contacts for the temporary bus short circuit.

LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS

-   -   11 Bus    -   12 Subscriber (on 11)    -   13 Master (upstream of 11)    -   14 ID address (of 12)    -   15 Load circuit (in 12)    -   16 Short-circuit switch (of 15)    -   17 Line termination (on 11 opposite 13)    -   18 Voltage jump (in 13)    -   19 Echo signal (for 18)    -   20 Differential signal (from 18 and 19)    -   21 Length (of 20)    -   22 Distance (from 12 to 13 via 11)    -   23 Asymmetrical signal (from 19)    -   24 Square-wave signal (from 23)    -   25 Integrator (for 24)    -   26 Sampling circuit (downstream of 25)

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for detecting subscribers, which areconnected to a parallel bus, by their bus master, wherein thesubscribers register their identification addresses on the occasion of asystem start, whereupon the master causes a reflective linediscontinuity in a respective one of the subscribers and outputs avoltage jump onto the bus, wherein a differential signal length of saidvoltage jump which results from the superimposition with an echo signal,is measured as a measure of a distance between the master and said onesubscriber along the bus.
 2. A method according claim 1, wherein for theline discontinuity, the bus is temporarily additionally loaded at saidone subscriber.
 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein that thelength of the resultant differential signal is measured, followingsignal shaping, by way of a pulse area integration.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the subscribers register with the masterafter any desired and variable waiting times and, in the event of aregistration collision, repeat the registration process after anyfurther desired and variable waiting times.
 5. A method according toclaim 1, wherein in order to determine the respective subscriberdistance, the master randomly accesses the subscribers by temporarilyswitching on their respective short circuit.
 6. A method according toclaim 2, wherein a bus short circuit is performed as said additionalloading.
 7. A device for detecting subscribers, which are connected to aparallel bus, by their bus master which records the ID addresses of thesubscribers registering via the bus, to individually address saidsubscribers, so as to cause a reflective line discontinuity in arespective one of the subscribers and to emit a voltage jump onto thebus when a subscriber is addressed and to measure the echo pulse length,whereas each subscriber has a load circuit on the bus, which loadcircuit can be temporarily activatable for echo reflection.
 8. A deviceaccording to the claim 7, wherein the load circuit has a short-circuitswitch.
 9. A device according to claim 7, wherein the master has pulseshaping circuits.
 10. A device according to claim 8, wherein the masterhas pulse shaping circuits.
 11. A device according to claim 9, whereinthe master has an integrator for measuring a distance-dependent lengthof the idealized differential signal comprising an emitted square-wavesignal and thus a superimposed echo signal.